Digitalization of humans

                                           

First I must clarify the title. It is not about making a human into a machine; it is not about changing cells into bits and bytes. It is not about half man, half machine. Or in other words, it is not about ‘Terminator’ Arnold Schwarzenegger; it is about real humans like you and me.

Whether we sensed it or not, we have been digitalized for quite some time now. i.e. all our personal information is being stored in digital format whether we like it / know it. Think for a second; to how many unknown persons we share our personal information: name, age, address, date of birth etc. - sometimes even to a boy standing near a toll plaza! And how many calls do we get from unknown numbers! And they know when to call you; like, in a Sunday afternoon, when you finally went to sleep after digesting (not the food) the amount of restaurant bill you spent yesterday as part of regular Saturday family outing, the fact that you didn’t get any pay hike this year, the rumour you heard from your friendly colleague that 70% of your unit may get pink slip and linking that with a conversation you had with your manager during last week appraisal meeting where he, with a full grin on his face announcing that you have to be ‘proactive’ and find ways to improve because your performance rating is still hovering around 70%....and then you get that call.

A mysterious person asks politely, “Sir, do you want a personal loan?” We get so annoyed and we wish he were there, right in front of you in physical form so that you can add up all your strength and punch him right on his face. I always think of only one question during those times,” How did you get my number.” Answer would be simple. “We have our database, Sir.”

Database; yes, data stored in digitalized format! Your personal details get chopped into bits and pieces and stored as bits and bytes in a big machine, which has no emotions, sympathy towards us. And we feed it. Yes, we only feed it.

Two factors: one is our bank, second is our mobile company.

KYC, when I first heard it I thought there was a new competitor to KFC in market. But then I came to know (after reading mail from bank fully, which usually we don’t do), KYC stands for 'Know Your Customer'. But what were they trying to say? Didn’t they know me? So, without knowing me they were crediting, debiting, and processing cheques, offering me credit cards? Or was it like a love marriage? We were in love first and then we got married so they want to know more about me now?

What can they do? Government is trying to tighten security. It wants to know more about its customers, sorry, people. So it comes up with new identity cards. Ration cards were not good enough so they came up with PAN card. If you don’t have a PAN card, you can’t open a bank account. But then government found out that a single person had multiple PAN cards. I personally would be happy if I were a higher official in Finance department because, hey, can’t you see, a person earns so much in this poor country that one PAN is not sufficient for him. But morally/legally it is not correct because he is cheating the government by not paying tax.

So govt came up with a brilliant plan; Aadhar card. If giving all my personal details and then my PAN card details to bank were the first step to get me digitalize, Aadhar card is many steps further (in upward direction). Now they took my finger prints, eye retina (to be precise, 'Iris') along with my personal details.

Ok. Now, I am partially digitalized, meaning a substantial percentage of me is available in digital format. Still something is missing; yes, my financial details. So then they asked me to link my aadhar card and PAN card else I will not be able to pay tax.

I was wrong…damn…I was terribly wrong. It wasn’t a love affair between me and my bank – it was a bonding between my Aadhar and my PAN. And, whether I like it or not, I must get them married so that the story can have a happy ending!

Now think. The database has all details about me including my finger prints and Iris lines. If someone could steal that data along with my financial details..!

I consoled myself. ‘Don’t worry, you live in India. Anything can happen anytime; even while crossing a road, you put ‘baaram’ on god and cross. Because you never know from which side what vehicle will come! So let’s again put the ‘baaram’ on god and hope my data will always remain safe.’

Two, is my mobile company. As per technology (or as per movies), knowing my mobile number, my service provider can track me, where I’am at what time, and even can record my conversation, but they don’t know me! Yes, they don’t know me and wanted to know me better so to them also I had to submit recent ID cards like PAN or Aadhar. Similarly if you want to buy a new SIM, you must submit your ID proof. And you should see the way that person (whether in showroom or in a street corner petty shop) throws the copy of your invaluable id into a pile of similar pitiful souls. You get to wonder, what if this information goes into the hand, to which it shouldn’t go! Again pray to god.

When I was in US, in Minneapolis, I went out to buy a SIM. After choosing one I went to bill counter. A young guy there bent towards me, in a professional manner and in a whispering voice asked me, “What is your SSN?” I told him and came out happily comparing the approach in India and in US. But then I had a jolt. I thought, ‘who is this guy? I don’t know him but I told him my SSN! Will I ever get to see him again?’

Truth is ‘No’. I never had a chance to meet him again and… he knows my SSN.

We all know that biologically it is possible to clone a human. Well, is it possible to clone a human based on available digital information? That’s the way we are progressing.

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R. Bharathram

7 August 2017